Turns out that the lights of the Accu-Stats streaming table at Comet Billiards were no distraction to Dennis Hatch and his goal of regaining dominance on the Joss NE 9-Ball Tour.
Hatch was just one of the forty one players in attendance on April 25th and 26th. Hatch was joined by such notables as Al Lapena, Shaun Wilkie, Joey Korsiak, Tom McGonagle, Matt Tetreault, Liz Ford and Mike Fingers.
Hatch was up to his old tricks, and was cruising through the brackets with only once scare, courtesy of Shaun Wilkie. That match went 9-7, but that was the closest Hatch would allow an opponent over two days of play. Hatch took the hot-seat with a 9-4 win over Tom McGonagle and awaited his opponent in the finals.
McGonagle, went to the left side of the board and found Al Lapena waiting. Lapena had lost a Saturday match to Holden Chin and had been on a tear ever since then. Lapena won five matches on the left side of the board, including eliminations of Joey Korsiak and Shaun Wilkie. With all Lapena's built up momentum, he crushed McGonagle 9-1 in the semi-final match and booked his place in the finals against The Hatchetman.
With Lapena's hot play leading up the finals, fans were expecting a real shootout. What they got instead was an ambush as Hatch took commands and cruised to a 9-3 win for yet another Joss NE 9-Ball Tour win.
Hatch earned $1400 for first, with Lapena settling for $980 in second place prize money.
The Joss tour is at Snookers in Providence, RI next week for their next stop and will be at Turning Stone Casino on August 20th - 23rd for the Turning Stone Classic XIII. Interested players are urged to contact Mike Zuglan as soon as possible to sign up for the Turning Stone event.
